Mission to the Makua of Mozambique

Cultivating Christian Communities

The end of May is already here and June is upon us!  It is hard to believe that we have been living in Lisbon for two and half months.  The daily discipline of language study can make time stand still.  These first two months have been very intensive in our Portuguese studies.  Life continues to be a linguistic struggle and adventure.  Sometimes it is hard to notice any progress, yet when we pull back from the daily grind of language study and think about where we have been, we can see growth.  I guess it's that way in life- at times we need to put up our Sherlock Holmes magnifer and climb a tree to get a bigger picture.  Each day continues to hold funny, frustrating and unexpected events.  For example.

In the beginning of May, Kyle had memorized a small passage about inquiring for information about Portuguese bank accounts that he had gone over with his language teacher, Isabel.  After working on the pronunciation, flow and comprehension of the passage, he set out to test his Portuguese on a few banks in the area.  At the first bank, he blanked out on what he was supposed to say.  At the second bank, he managed to get through the passage but realized that he hadn't prepared to get any responses (even though his passage ended in a question) and was clueless as to what they were saying.  Nevertheless, intent on practicing the language, he tried a third bank.  As he started to communicate with his memorized passage, the clerk stopped him mid-sentence and curtly suggested, "It would be much easier if you just spoke English to me."  .Oh if he only knew! 

Another funny story of language mishap comes from Ginger's interaction with our baker.  Everyday Ginger comes home from language school and drops by a local "padaria."  The owner of this bakery is a woman who absolutely loves Asher.  Ginger has been able to develop a neat relationship with the lady, Manuela, and enjoys practicing her Portuguese with her since Manuela doesn't speak any English.  Ginger has explained why we are living in Lisbon and where we will be moving in December.  During the first few weeks of our language learning when Ginger was establishing a relationship with the baker (and when we didn' know much Portuguese), Ginger thought Manuela asked if we spoke English to which Ginger quickly replied, "Sim."  However what we have learned is that Manuela asked if we were from Inglaterra (England).  So, now Manuela thinks we are British.  She often talks about how Asher will know Portuguese when we move back to England.  She tells people who are in the bakery when we are visiting with her that we are from England.  Now that Ginger has figured out what she is really saying, she feels bad to correct her and say, "You know how you tell everyone that we are from England, well, we're not- we are from America!"  So for now, we are content to be British!      

We continue to enjoy our life here in Lisbon as we learn language.  Actually, we are realizing that we are learning much more than just language here in Portugal.  One of the fun things about living in a different culture is experiencing many of the unique characteristics of that culture.  We have had great fun learning about Portuguese music, history, and one of my favorite topics- Portuguese cuisine.  Actually, to explain Portuguese food I could really just sum it all up in one word- FISH (or peixe as they call it here).  It makes plenty of sense that fish would be a staple here in this coastal country; Mozambique will likely be very similar in this way, so it is great that I am able to learn about fish now.  Before arriving here, the word fish conjured basically one image in my mind- good ole southern fried catfish.  Coming from the foothills of Tennessee and living in Arkansas for a few years, what else was I to expect?  Little did I know how many different kinds of fish existed or how many different ways to cook them there are!  We do most of our grocery shopping here at the local market.  It is a large indoor market with many different vendors, each in their own stall.  We buy our fruits, meat, vegetables, and a few other goods at this market.  There are small grocery stores here in Lisbon where we go for refrigerated goods like milk, cheese, etc. but for most things, the prices in the market are usually cheaper and the experience is much more fun!  At the urging of Isabel my language teacher, last week I bought fresh fish from the market for the first time.  Now, you may be imagining nice pretty boneless fillets all wrapped up in clean white paper- it was not quite like that!  The woman who sold me the fish sold me the entire fish- including the bones, the head and eyeballs!  We enjoyed cooking it and were pleasantly surprised at how wonderful it tasted!   The Portuguese take great pride in cooking and spend a good deal of time preparing food.  For a little language listening practice, I can always ask an older woman in the market how to prepare a certain dish!  We have grown particularly fond of our "vegetable lady" who adores Asher.  She always gives him carrots to munch on while we shop.  Like many countries in Europe, the Portuguese eat quite healthy.  For protein, they mostly eat fish (their favorite kind is cod) and pork, but occasionally have chicken and red meat.  Every meal contains vegetables and some kind of vegetable soup.  They also eat lots of cheese (every kind known to man except cheddar) and yogurt (well, actually they drink the yogurt!) This in a nutshell is Portuguese cuisine!  Any restaurant you enter in the city will serve these basic things- the menus in all the restaurants are exactly the same!! There are a handful of ethic restaurants scattered throughout Lisbon- like Chinese places or McDonald's- but these places have not really made much of an inroad here because the people prefer their own dishes to foreign ones.  We do miss many things about our home cuisine- ranch dressing, tacos, cheddar cheese, and maple syrup to name a few, but we are learning those things are not essentials!!!  How exciting and refreshing it is to learn there are other ways to do things than what I have always done!  Who would have thought that food could teach me such a simple lesson in humility.      

Since we have been so immersed in language study, much of our metaphors and paradigms for Christianity and the world around us have been constructed through the experience of learning Portuguese.  In the church when we speak of evangelism or missions we often refer to these topics as "communicating Christ" to the world.  Many times we think of communication as a simple mathematical equation where the sentences we string together produce comprehension and reception by the hearer.  People knowledgeable in communication theory will tell us that the process is much more complicated and mysterious.  I think many of us could even relate funny stories of misunderstanding and communication breakdown within our own experience.  Of course, the probability of misunderstanding increases when we cross cultural borders.  Simple communication events can often break down.  Whether we are giving directions, relating a past story to someone or simply trying to say 'thank you,' there are infinite possibilities for misinterpretation and misunderstanding.  How much more mysterious and prone to misunderstanding is the gospel of the kingdom of God-that gospel which is the wisdom of God and foolishness to the world (ICor. 1). 

Language and the words that compose our specific thoughts, actions and intentions, cannot be reduced to a simple Webster's Dictionary definition.  Part of the frustration with learning another language is the multiple meanings some words have.  Furthermore, for each person, certain words conjure past experiences and color the language in such a way as to add meaning-personal meaning from the past-to interpersonal communication.  Jacques Ellul, a Christian philosopher, writes in his book The Humiliation of the Word, "Language deals with connotations and overtones.  It takes its place in the center of an infinitely delicate spider's web, whose central structure is fine, rigorous, and dense.  As you move away from the center, the web becomes larger and distended, until it reaches in coherence at its edge, where it sends off threads in every direction.Some foolishly try to reduce language to something like algebra, in which each word would have a mathematically precise meaning, and only one meaning.But the blessed uncertainty of language is the source of all its richness" (pg. 18).  Learning another language is like crawling into a spider web from the outside.  All the strands of words and phrases seem to have singular meanings and a kind of separateness from other words.  However, as you draw deeper into the web, a system emerges with endless connections and shades of meaning. 

What does this have to do with "communicating Christ?"  Well, it seems to me, that when we speak of evangelism we are not primarily speaking of a simple sentence we share with the world nor a string of paragraphs, nor a letter.  What we are attempting to communicate is a web, a structure of justice, peace and righteousness.  This structure is a kingdom where the people of God live and work out of.  However, we aren't spiders catching flies with this web in order to suck the life from people (I've heard of some evangelistic attempts that seem to do this).  What we do is allow people to journey into the web.  Because there isn't a proper statement or sentence that aptly gives an idea of the gospel, we aren't answer givers nor predators using evangelistic strategies to lure people into a web of our own construction.  After all, we are residents and pilgrims within this web as well.  After years of exploration and experience, we may be quite familiar with this tightly woven web, but we do not have the capacity to follow the threads as they spread out into infinity.  In other words, we do not know how big this web really is.  As people of God when we "communicate Christ" we speak in metaphors and we allow mystery to remain.  Without such ambiguity we cannot properly share the kingdom of God.  Furthermore, because of the nature of communication, evangelism is essentially about dialogue.  If we monologue then we are doomed to communication failure.  If we dialogue, then we are ready for a pilgrimage to God. 

Thanks for listening to our ramblings and experiences!

Blessings   

By the tender mercy of our God,

The dawn from on high will break upon us,

To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

To guide our feet into the way of peace.

Luke 1:78-79

May 2003/Vol 4 No. 1